Forum - Tips & Tricks - Arm Yourself! - Messages http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Forum - Tips & Tricks - Arm Yourself! - Messages en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Jitbit AspNetForum Fri, 31 Mar 2017 22:53:34 GMT Fri, 31 Mar 2017 22:53:34 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC theotherguy wrote:
I've had a couple of breakthroughs with backdrops, textures, and environments and you'll see them in my next episode.


looking forward to it!]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2017 22:53:34 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from theotherguy
I'd love to know my way around 3-D and the related OBJ and UVmapping but I'm too impatient, I've had a couple of breakthroughs with backdrops, textures, and environments and you'll see them in my next episode.]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2017 04:55:10 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC
Then I opened one of Poser's cartoon characters and posed him in 3 different hand configurations with the bass. I exported each pose separately as OBJ.

Then I opened the 3 models in SILO, and merged all 3 sets of arms onto one body. After UVMapping the arms and putting the maps on one graphic, I animated the textures to make it look like the hands are playing the bass. It would have been harder to pose the hands without poser.]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2017 19:33:36 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from theotherguy Thu, 30 Mar 2017 16:50:40 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC christian_clavet wrote:
Hi, I'm intrigued by this... Are there bones in the arm that will work with Muzivu? Or the arm are in fixed position?


while we're on the topic of extending Muvizu's capability with other animation software that you might already have:

POSER has a cheap version which goes on sale a couple times each year. Characters in Poser are completely posable (hence the name).. and the program includes a set of posable hands.

You can import props as OBJ files (like an iPad, for example... ), and pose character or hands around the props to get any usage position your scene requires.

Then you can export the results as OBJ file and convert it to ASE or FBX

If you don't want to use the results as static object in Muvizu, you can also create animations in the Poser environment, then export as green screen, and merge the output with your Muvizu scene in a video editor.

DAZ studio is free, and it might have the same capability.

Or... you could bring Ziggy's arms into Blender and rig them in that environment (lots of tutorials on youtube)... once they are rigged, you can configure the hands any way you want them.]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:35:50 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from theotherguy ]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:35:11 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC



Once you have your MOHO animation, you can either merge it with your Muvizu scene in a photo editor (preferred) or you can export from Moho as uncompressed AVI then apply it to a backdrop in Muvizu. By default, Moho exports scenes with Alpha background (assuming the graphics you used for your rigging have alpha background)

If you put your animation on a backdrop with alpha background, it will cast shadows in the muvizu environment, which helps to make it fit. This approach is best suited to the standard Muvizu lighting, since turning down the ambient light then lighting the scene with area lights won't light a backdrop animation the same as it will the rest of your scene.

As stated in a previous post, advantages of including Moho as part of your animation toolbox include the ability to create truly original characters, and pretty much ANY kind of action

Disadvantages include: much slower animation process, as you have to create the characters, rig them, and manually create every aspect of the animation]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2017 13:23:47 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC
Other things that make MOHO worthy of a spot in anyone's animation tool box:

1) it outputs AVI that works on Muvizu backdrops.

2) It can be used to create AVI for Rod's multi-mesh animation... and because it is a full fledged animation program in its own right, it has a timeline that helps you to synch your animations with music and/or sound effects

3) you can take screen shots of a muvizu character then separate it into arms, legs , body, head etc and rig it in Moho to create actions that don't exist in Muvizu

the fiddle player in this video was animated in MOHO (When it was still called Anime Studio)
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=lKxFVoYWMQY

I think this was my first Muvizu video, so view it as such. ;-)

I still have all the elements for the video, so maybe they could be rearranged into a tutorial....
edited by PatMarrNC on 30/03/2017]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:17:09 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from theotherguy Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:54:48 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from MrDrWho13 christian_clavet wrote:
Hi, I'm intrigued by this... Are there bones in the arm that will work with Muzivu? Or the arm are in fixed position?

The arms are in a fixed position. We can't currently import anything that's rigged.]]> Tue, 26 Jul 2016 10:23:05 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from christian_clavet Mon, 25 Jul 2016 18:00:15 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from drewi ]]> Sun, 17 Jul 2016 14:07:08 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from Tangledbliss Sat, 16 Jul 2016 22:47:20 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from PatMarrNC Sun, 05 Jun 2016 20:46:43 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from MrDrWho13 I'm not sure if the smoking one covers this, but how about a pinching position?]]> Sun, 05 Jun 2016 15:29:49 GMT http://www.muvizu.com/Forum/topic5734-arm-yourself.aspx Message from ziggy72

This is the link to my FBX arms, meant for attaching to characters (mainly the standard 'potato heads') or as standalone objects to help you fake your videos

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=49D7234E5E7C54B9%21173

NEW - Mobile phone set, including both hands and a smartphone :



https://1drv.ms/u/s!ALlUfF5OI9dJgTM


Use blender (or similar) to import the hands to add objects (and then re-export as FBX, Geometry Smoothing set to Faces (not Normals, unless you want them all segmented)). Use the UV maps as your guide to paint the arms - they are a default flesh colour, but that won't match your character (usually) so you'll have to alter the textures to match clothing, skin colour, etc. Additionally, when importing into a 3D package they may appear really tiny (they are scaled to fit Muvizu characters regardless of the character's own scale setting, and it's quite a range) so some resizing will be required, I reckon.

These are a work-in-progress set, so they all have different file structures (as I tried to find a standard) and I would appreciate any feedback on problems you may encounter, missing textures, collision oddness, etc. Due to my experiments with 3D Coat making these, the UV maps may be a little wonky - I can work with them, but I'm interested to see if the rest of you can

These are just the test pieces - eventually I want to create an entire set, based on this list :

Holding a tray (DONE)
Holding a gun
Holding a phone
Holding a phone (old school) (DONE)
Using a mobile/tablet (DONE)
Holding a cup
Holding a utensil
An extended fist (DONE)
Smoking position (pipe or cig)
Generic position (for scratching head or whatever)
Middle finger (thanks TheOtherGuy)
Pinched (holding something really small or smoking) (thanks MrDrWho13)

Further suggestions are welcome.
edited by ziggy72 on 01/08/2016]]> Sun, 05 Jun 2016 15:27:31 GMT